In 2009, Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote bounced back from crappy relationships with musician ex-boyfriends by taking a vacation to the Spanish coast. But the Madrid natives came home with more than mended hearts: They decided to form a band. “I only knew a few chords and she didn’t know how to play anything,” says Perrote. “We felt like we were doing something special even though it was just a f—ing Bob Dylan cover on an acoustic guitar. But after that trip we thought, ‘Let’s try to do something.’”

Seven years later, the female quartet Hinds (featuring bassist Ade Martín and drummer Amber Grimbergen with Cosials and Perrote) have one of the year’s best indie-rock debuts, Leave Me Alone, out now. Over 12 lo-fi, raucous rockers like “And I Will Send Your Flowers Back,” Hinds carry the tradition of girl punk bands Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney into the 21st century. Says Perrote, “We like garage music because it’s from your heart and your body. We could have done very professional-sounding songs but we were thinking, this is our debut album. If we sound like everyone else no one’s giong to remember.”

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While rock may be a male-dominated industry, Hinds’ lineup is crucial to their mission. “If we had men in our band, everyone would think they were writing the music,” Perrote says. “Rock & roll is clearly made by guys, and it seems to be made for guys. But we’re discovering that’s not true. There are a lot of rock and roll players that are girls and we feel like we have to talk about that.”

She continues, “We feel like we have a lot of things to say and – this may sound weird – but we feel like we can change the world a little bit.”